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Friday, 5 September 2014

My Menu Planner {FINALLY, some "prettified" organisation}

Over a year ago, I shared about Organising your Meals. I found a really great idea for doing a meal-planning board.

It looked lovely.

Just my kind of thing.

I thought it would massively help my organisation.

Yes.

If I DID it.

Well, over a year later.... I DID IT!!!!

I am LOVING it. I love how it turned out. I love that it has buttons. I love that I will HOPEFULLY be better at planning meals now.

Do you wanna see??...

Ah! You want to know how I MADE it, first? Oh, ok then!

So, I salvaged a magnetic white board, from the back of beyond in my school room. I used it pre-large-whiteboard, and forgot I had it, until a clear out the other day. Perfect size, perfect shape.

I got some double-sided tape, and put it all over the surface of the white board.

Then I covered it in pretty paper. I didn't have enough of one type, so I used two, complementing designs.

My principle was based on using pegs (clothes-pins) to clip my meal cards onto. I was in The Range, just last week, and they had these sets of pegs, with the days of the week ALREADY PRINTED on them!!!! ONLY £1!!!! BARGAIN! (I now have some family members who have a set - I thought they could be useful!) Buying these are what inspired me to FINALLY get this board made!

I also wanted little pockets, to put the meal cards into. I found some little envelopes I had, and with a bit of cutting, sticky backed tape and pretty paper, I made three pockets. I think they will work on the principle of "meals we have regularly", "meals we have less regularly" and "meals we have rarely".

I was thrilled to find, in Bethany's stash of craft items, some stickers on a kitchen theme! So, I used them to decorate the little pockets. the children INSISTED on the first one, as I was reluctant to describe myself thus....

This next one is certainly how I TRY to make my meals, but Elijah sometimes questions the first part (he's my fussier eater!)

Then, I embellished and prettified it! I had a LOT of fun, picking out buttons, sticking on flowers, and finding ribbon!

I ended up with a bit of a "gap" at the bottom, so I thought it would be good to have a space to hang up some scripture, perhaps any memory verses we have, or simply good verses to be mindful of?

This seemed like a good one to begin with.

So, that's my board!

TA-DA!!

I am really pleased with the overall effect... the colours tone in with my kitchen and dining room, so I plan to (sorry, I plan to have ROBERT....) hang it on the hatch doors, so that it is visible from the kitchen with them shut, but also seen in the dining room, when they are open.

That's the plan.

So far, it's not quite happened, and this leads me to my last picture.

Can you see?.....

I learnt a spiritual lesson, on the way through. I was reminded about the life that God has given to us. Sometimes it is less than perfect, or a bit "messy". Sometimes the imperfecttions are invisible. Sometimes they are visible, and we try and cover it up, to make our life look more "normal".

Ultimately, like my imperfect board (people who know us well may guess the culprit, who pulled SEVERAL pegs off the board, requiring repair....) we just need to pray for grace from those around us.

I kind of hope no-one will point out its flaw! It will probably not be seen most of the time, but I will know it's there. So, I need to show MYSELF some grace, as it hasn't quite ended up as perfect as I wanted.

Likewise, as we hit problems and imperfections in our life - our marriage, our children, our relationships, our choices - we need to show ourself some grace. Not beat ourselves up about the "messy" parts. Instead, we need to put our best foot forward, making things right as we are able, and move on.

I COULD have thrown the whole thing out, because it wasn't right. That would have been SUPER silly. It will be barely noticeable, and still perfectly functional.

Our life is the same. Even with messy bits, it's silly to just give up when things are less than perfect. We need to press on, and make the best of it, most of all remembering that GOD shows us grace, even with our imperfections!

"But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble."

James 4:6

See, the HUMBLE! I have to be willing to put my imperfections on show, and press on! Not one of us is without the messy parts, so receive grace, and give it in return, in equal measure.

So, there we have it.

My Menu Planner.

Oh, if you are interested in my master list of meals, I can share! Let me know!

If you make your own, please send me a picture - I'd love to see it. Or, link up and tell me how you show your weekly meal plan!